Századok – 2005

TANULMÁNYOK - Sudár Balázs: Vác városának török házösszeírása 1570-ből 791

VÁC VÁROSÁNAK TÖRÖK HÁZÖSSZEÍRÁSA 1570-BŐL 853 AN OTTOMAN REGISTER OF THE HOUSES OF VÁC FROM 1570 by Balázs Sudár Summary Very few detailed registers of the medieval and early modern Hungarian towns have come down to us. Here lays the importance of the register of five towns in the region of the Danube Bend, namely Esztergom, Visegrád, Vác, Nógrád and Drégely, which was made in the early 1570s (Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Krafft 290.) For the Ottoman administration, contrary to the normal process, registered all the houses of the settlements concerned, regardless of their quality or of the religion and income of their inhabitants. Moreover, all the entries were completed by a number of useful information, such as the name of the owner, the former possessors, the number of rooms, the appurtenances (garden, well, cave), the material of the building and its neighbours. The register is most detailed in the case of Vác. It is no surprising, therefore, that already the first publisher of the source, namely Lajos Fekete, concieved the idea of preparing a topographical reconstruction on its basis. Yet neither Fekete nor later scholars succeeded in solving the problems, contenting themselves by merely reconstructing the respective order of the different quarters. I followed a different approach comprising several levels. In this study I merely intended to reconstruct the relations of neighbourhood. If we manage to decipher the method followed by the scribe, this can be done with relative certainty. Yet what results is but a fictive map, for we have no information on either the shape or the size of the sites. A comparison with the surviving objects would be the task of further research. The respective geographical situation of the different quarters can be reconstructed despite the limited number of the available topographical information.On the bank of the Danube the following quarters ran southwards: Hasan woywod's mosque - Market - Jewish quarter - Quarter of the Big Street. Further off the Danube, on the eastern side of the main road their also stood the houses of the Big Street. Parallel to it ran the Little Street, and, probably outside the town wall, the Lökös Street. South to this block was the quarter of the Sáros Street, which bordered on the houses of the Kosdi Street. The junction of the Kosdi Street, the Big Street and the Quarter of Hasan woywod's mosque cannot be determined on the basis of this register. The quarter of the martalócok seems to have been one separate building, which may have been a cloister previously. The quarter of the mosque of Kasim bey seems to have been somewhat bigger. Their exact location cannot be reconstructed upon the register in question; they may have stood on the territory of the future Hungarian town.